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The 19th Century in Its Seaside Glory

By GORDON MOTT; Gordon Mott is a journalist who lives in Paris.

Published: July 26, 1987

Today the seaside promenade is concrete and the lantern posts are topped by electric lights. But it doesn't take much to imagine Biarritz in the 19th century: ladies in long dresses sweeping down the wooden boardwalk, pausing at one end of the curving Grand Plage to gaze up at the stately palace of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, spinning on their heels with parasols tilted toward the summer's late sunset and walking slowly under the gas lanterns toward the flickering lights in the restaurants and hotels at the far end of the beach while the twin flashes of the St. Martin's lighthouse briefly illuminated the scene in twin bursts of light every seven seconds.

Biarritz retains a remarkable measure of its 19th-century charms. The city's Victorian and belle epoque buildings have not been torn down for high-rise condominiums and modern hotels. The tile roofs and stone fronts of the 100-year-old buildings still evoke an era when top hats and tails were vacation necessities for anyone of means. In fact, Biarritz can still be a resort where black-tie dining and dancing are not out of place.

The town is in the heart of French Basque country at the southern extreme of the French Bay of Biscay, just 25 miles from the Spanish border and half a dozen miles from Bayonne, a large port city and commercial center. Biarritz languished in Bayonne's shadow and the fishing ports of St.-Jean-de-Luz and Hendaye until Empress Eugenie, who had vacationed in Biarritz in the 1830's, brought Napoleon there. He became enchanted with the coast and built the Villa Eugenie. The presence of nobility started the town's reincarnation as an elegant resort in the 1850's.

The resort remained an attraction for decades, but reached new peaks of chicness during the era before World War I and later in the 1920's. The list of royal or noble visitors during those periods is impressive. Edward VII brought his mother, Queen Victoria. Bismarck wooed the beautiful Russian princess Orloff here. Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, amazed residents by zipping along the roads in his auto at 25 miles an hour before such things became common. The Shah of Persia came here, as did Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia. According to local history guides, every noble around made certain to spend time in Biarritz.

Although some nobles built their own private palaces in Biarritz, many preferred to stay at the Villa Eugenie, which later became the Hotel du Palais. In fact, today the hotel is still a major attraction in the town, both as a historical monument and as a place to stay. The long sloping driveway winds between a wrought-iron gate and past neatly trimmed hedges and flower beds. A uniformed doorman greets the passengers under a wrought-iron and smoked-glass awning in the shape of a hand-held, folding fan. The brass railings on the revolving wooden door gleam and the marble steps are shiny from years of use. The building resembles a Victorian government edifice with truncated turrets with flat slate roofs at each corner and small balconies on each floor. The brick facade is painted an earthy, deep red and white stone columns accent the corners.

The interior of the building is as grand as the outside. The rooms have 15-foot ceilings with plaster relief designs in the corners. Every room has a fireplace and a balcony. The furniture consists of reproductions of period pieces with velvet upholstery and curved wooden legs. The public areas are just as grand. Twenty-five-foot high ceilings and stone pillars tower above the marble floors, the Oriental carpets and the wooden reception desks. Wide marble staircases with iron railings sweep down from the bedroom floors toward the main salons.

In the lounges, guests sit under rows of chandeliers in front of a wooden bar in a room that is separated from the foyer by glass doors and from the dining room by a row of pillars. The oval dining room has floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the Grand Plage and the ocean. Throughout the public rooms, in small recesses where the ceiling and walls join, over doors and in the patterns on the wrought-iron stair railings, you can see written in script form the initials N and E for Napoleon and Eugenie.

After a day by the heated sea-water swimming pool, you can spend a night on the town that is no different from the nights on the town enjoyed by visitors in the 1920's. You start with dinner at the Cafe de Paris, a belle epoque restaurant right in front of the Casino Bellevue with a decor faithful to that era. Visitors walk through a wood-paneled entryway into a tiny bar with plush leather chairs. The dining room has chandeliers, pillars and waiters in evening dress. Each table is lighted with a small lamp with a linen shade, and huge palm trees are placed in the corners. The atmosphere of the room may be best described by the wine decanters: cut crystal with elaborately carved silver spouts. On top of all that, the food is delicious and the wine list is impressive.

Once you have dined, the next activity is just across the parking lot in the Casino Bellevue, a full-fledged casino in a 1920's-style building. It is not a high roller's casino, but the roulette wheels are still made of shiny brass and wood, the wooden arm rests on the blackjack tables have grooves worn in them from decades of elbows and the croupiers wear red vests. Besides blackjack and roulette, you can also play baccarat. For the more modern minds, the casino also houses a discotheque.